A course of lectures on medicine to nurses / by Herbert E. Cuff.
- Cuff, Herbert E. (Herbert Edmund), 1864-1921
- Date:
- 1920
Licence: In copyright
Credit: A course of lectures on medicine to nurses / by Herbert E. Cuff. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![follow the interna] administration of alcohol in a healthy individual. The next question is : Which of these effects do ice wish to produce in cases such as we are considering ? Now, alcohol is one of our most important drugs in the treatment of these cases, and therefore must not be care¬ lessly or thoughtlessly used. For instance, we should not give it merely for the sake of its antipyretic qualities, its action in that way being very slight. Besides, there are other and much more efficient methods of lowering a high temperature. Nor should we give it for (4), unless the patient were old and feeble and taking food badly. Then, as to (1) it seems a very proper thing to use a remedy that will develop vital force, especially in a long and wasting illness such as enteric fever. The objection raised by some to its use for such a purpose is that the system may become so accustomed to the drug, that later on in the illness when we wish to use it as a stimulant we may, to produce any effect, have to give it in very large doses—doses that will have an injurious effect upon the patient if kept up for more than a very short time. Stimulation of the heart is without doubt the most valu¬ able property of alcohol in cases of acute illness. Let us consider for a moment its effect upon the circulatory apparatus when given for this purpose. Effect of Alcohol upon the Heart.—The pulse is improved, because the heart is stimulated. But, though the pulse is strengthened, the heart is not. That organ is being forced to work harder by the alcohol, and therefore it fills the arteries better than it previously did, and consequently you have a stronger pulse. Alcohol affects the heart in the same way as the whip or spur does a horse. Now, just as a too liberal use of the whip or spur, by compelling a horse to](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29811338_0026.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
